Hiding
by kaizokunami
Summary: KotOR 2: postgame, LSM Exile. Mira corners Atton in the cockpit, trying to find out what he's hiding, and gets a little more than she bargained for.


**Hiding**

"Hey, Atton?"

Mira hovered in the entryway of the cockpit for a moment. She was surprised to see the pilot up and out of his usual seat. He was looking at the galaxy map mounted on the wall behind his chair, and he didn't even turn when she called his name. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

He gave a little half-shrug, still turned away from her. "Nothing much, really. That little trash compactor could fly this thing until we get to Telos."

Mira had always prided herself on her ability to read people, but he really wasn't giving her anything to work with, except the smallest trickle of annoyance, barely perceptible to her newly-awakened Jedi senses. "If the droid really could fly the ship, then why are you hiding up here?" she asked. "We're not good enough company for you?"

He turned to look at her, finally, and his face was as unreadable as the wall of calculations and emotions that guarded his mind. "I'm not hiding. I'm just not feeling particularly social right now."

"We won, you know." She leaned against the wall across from him, arms crossed over her chest.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't feel like we won. Kreia was grooming him to do exactly what she wanted, and what do you think he's going to do? Even after everything that witch did to him – to us – you know he's going to leave as soon as he gets a chance to. He's gonna take the ship and that stupid little droid and go off alone to who knows where because she told him to."

Mira blinked. The anger in his outburst startled her. "You want to go with him?"

"Of course I do! Don't you?"

She shrugged. "I want to help, sure, but maybe this is something he's got to do on his own. And maybe you'd know that if you'd go talk to him instead of hiding up here."

"If he wants to talk to me, he knows where to find me. Besides, he's been closeted with Visas and the Ha – Brianna – ever since we hit hyperspace."

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

"I am not jealous."

Mira smiled viciously. "You are. I can feel it rolling off you."

**That** got a reaction. Atton moved faster than she'd thought he could, even after having seen him in battle. It wasn't a Force-generated speed either; it was proof of the Echani training that Brianna insisted he'd been given, proof that he was more dangerous than he let on. She was closer than she'd ever been to him; his face was mere inches from hers, his arms on either side of her shoulders, keeping her neatly pinned against the wall. "Stay. Out. Of. My. Head," he growled.

When she spoke, her voice was more confident than she felt. She was treading on a minefield here and she knew it. "What's your problem, Atton? What are you hiding?"

"I don't want Jedi crawling around inside my head."

"You know, you're a Jedi yourself now. There's no need for the attitude. Besides, I wasn't looking on purpose," she said slowly. "You're projecting. "

"Just stay out of my brain."

"Or what passes for it."

"Shut up, Mira."

His face, the set of his mouth said he wasn't kidding, but she pushed back all the same. "Make me," she retorted.

Suddenly, his mouth was over hers in a hard, fast kiss. She didn't even have a chance to react. There was no gentleness, just sheer anger in that kiss, so much so that it flowed over into her as well. She saw red inside her mind, felt the crushing weight of the emotions he hid behind washing over her as their bodies touched.

It was over as suddenly as it had begun. She was torn between wanting to slap him and wanting to kiss him again, to keep kissing him until that rawness soaked out of him, until he was healed of whatever pain kept him seething like this. When he pulled away, she looked up and saw a similar debate going on behind his eyes. She reached up, intending to pull him back down for another, more gentle kiss.

The chiming of the cockpit's comlink caused them to break apart quickly, like guilty children caught at some mischief. Atton stalked over to the console as if Mira wasn't even in the room with him. "What?" he snapped.

"Whoa, don't bite my head off, Atton." Bao-Dur's sardonic, static-filled voice echoed across the line.

"Yeah, I'm a little busy."

"I gathered. The General wants to talk to you. He's in Kreia's – I mean, the port dormitory."

"I'll be right there."

Mira was already gone when he turned away from the console.


End file.
